The French King Louis XVI

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Part 1: Prince, Husband, King

Louis XVI was King of France during the French Revolution. He proved unable to deal with the tidal waves of change engulfing his country and died as a symbol of monarchy gone bad.

King Louis XVI of France

He was born Louis-Auguste on Aug. 23, 1754, at the Palace of Versailles. His father, also named Louis, was at the time the Dauphin, the heir to the French throne. The Dauphin was also the father to an older child, also named Louis, who was 3 when young Louis-Auguste was born.

The reigning monarch in 1754 was King Louis XV, who himself had succeeded not his father but his great-grandfather, Louis XIV, on the throne. Similar circumstances paved the way for young Louis-Auguste: His older brother died in 1761, and his father died in 1765; when young Louis was 11, he was named Dauphin.

Louis-Auguste had an excellent memory and proved a very good student, enjoying the studies of astronomy, geography, history, and Latin and achieving fluency in English and Italian. He enjoyed hunting and otherwise being outdoors. He had a keen interests in lock and locksmithing, and his tutors encouraged that interest. Two other things that he was taught, by his religious instructors, were that strong monarchs were not overbearing and did not readily let other people know what they were thinking.

Marie Antoinette

In 1770, he married Marie Antoinette, whose father was the Holy Roman emperor Francis I and whose daughter was Maria Theresa, whose ascendancy had followed the War of Austrian Succession. The French didn't much like the idea of their Dauphin's marrying an Austrian princess, particularly in the wake of France's disastrous results as Austria's ally in the recently completed Seven Years War, as the result of which France lost power and influence in Europe and a large amount of territory overseas. Furthering the discontent of many French people was the royal couple's lack of children. King Louis XV died on May 10, 1774, and the Dauphin became King Louis XVI. It wasn't until 1778 that the king had a child, and that child was a girl, Marie-Thérèse. King and queen eventually had four children, two sons and two daughters. Louis-Joseph was born in 1781, and Louis-Charles was born in 1785. A second daughter, Sophie, died in infancy.

In many ways, Marie and Louis were opposites. He was an early riser; she was a night owl. He was at home by himself, making furniture and tinkering with locks. His shyness made him slow to make a decision, with her and with his government. She craved attention and had no problem defending a decision that she had made, no matter how quickly she had made it.

Louis XVI was 19 when he ascended the throne. The pattern had been that the monarch was an absolute one, and the new king endeavored to continue in that capacity. Partly because of his nature and partly because of his teachings, he proved indecisive. He wanted to be seen by his people–all of them, across the economic classes–as a good king, and so he thought that he should take notice of public opinion.

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